Feed your baby in the baby bathtub…in the sink

Feeding baby food always seems to be so sticky and messy. Once you're done, you need to clean the chair AND give the baby a bath. Seems logical to consolidate the process and confine the mess by feeding the baby IN the bathtub! My bathtub actually fits in my kitchen sink which makes clean up much easier.

I recall needing the help of high chair straps during those easly feeding sessions. What about you?

Comments

This makes sense from a cleaning and convenience standpoint (8 years later I still shudder remembering those messes) but your baby isn’t learning an essential part of *how* to eat: sitting up in a chair, preferably at a table, being social with your family. That’s just as important as getting food into them.

I agree with Lynne – I’m not sure this one would make it into my arsenal of hacks. Once my kiddos were old enough to sit up in the regular tub, I often gave them their medicine (that awful staining pink stuff) while they sat in the tub. But I’m not sure about feeding them in a reclining position; once they need to practice chewing the food I would worry about choking.

I did this a few times in the infant tub when my little guy was just starting on solids. I think he got tired of sitting in the high chair before he was full because he was close to bedtime when we ate our dinner. I found that he LOVED the bath and since I knew he was still hungry it was a great way to feed him b/c it kept him happy. Now that he’s almost one I don’t feed him in the tub. Food belongs at the table – that’s the best way to teach healthy eating habits. I just used this “hack” on the rare occasion that it was necessary.

I agree with Lynne and Sarah, but I totally understand how even the smallest victory can blind us to the bigger picture.

My little guy got extrememly attached to the surrounding ritual of eating and any slight variation became problematic. When he was starting to eat, I discovered that the best way to get him to open his mouth was to keep him distracted with conversations, toys, puzzles and even television. It became such a ritual and as much a part of the eating that it’s been really tough trying to transition away from these activities into a real dinnertime experience.
Now that he’s 4 year old, I know that he can’t be expected to sit at the table for more than 15 minutes but he’s a slow eater and if I’m going to have any success at keeping him there I have to pull out my arsenal of dry-erase books.

So, what I’m trying to say is: If you start feeding your kid in the tub, you’re going to have to transition to a regular chair and the table sometime and it’s going to be hard to get you kid to understand why they can’t eat in the tub, in the sink.

I think that I often latched on to quick solution that didn’t really solve anything in the longterm and inadvertently created bigger issues down the road.